[geku]

Often personal projects are for learning new technologies and applying them in a meaningful way. E.g. many people want to run their personal projects on Kubernetes to play around with Kubernetes and understand how apps can be operated with it.

[superkuh]

I'll admit that Kubernetes Is a Surprisingly Affordable Platform for Personal Projects when your personal project is to learn how to use Kubernetes.

[Spivak]

Well yeah, I'm sure the time/money will pay for itself when he's looking for a job. I know I look favorably at homelabbers during technical interviews and DIY is often the only time you can get exposure to $new_hotness at some jobs.